Women Who Fight Harassment by Harassing

          I recently read an article in the Pittsburgh City paper titled 'Sticks and Stones' by Rebecca Nuttall that at first glance wasn't anything special. Half way through the article I knew that I had to share it here.

          The article was about a group that is taking a stand against verbal harassment. I'm okay with that. Verbal harassment isn't cool. iHollaback.org was created for victims of "street harassment" to share their experiences and has launched in 22 countries. In the article, street harassment is defined as 'a form of sexual harassment that occurs every day between strangers in public places.'

          Now, while verbal comments such as 'hey, sexy' and 'I'd tap that' are constitutionally protected (1st Amendment, people), most would agree that they're not very polite. As this type of speech is protected and cannot be prosecuted, iHollaback.org encourages users to fight back in another way by encouraging them to post pictures and videos of their harassers and post them on the website. After all, that is also protected free speech. The goal of posting pictures and videos is two-fold. First, it is supposed to increase awareness of street harassment. Second, it can hopefully shame people into changing their behavior.

          The thing that strikes me as incredibly stupid is a quote from Allison Winters, a co-founder of the Pittsburgh chapter of the organization. She says, "the goal is not to end communication between strangers, but to have it defined by respect." I'm sorry, but that is a completely ridiculous strategy to the problem. It seems, though, that in this day and age we are all for ridiculous strategies that do nothing but make us feel better about things we cannot control. Not to mention that if by some miracle this thing caught on, it would dampen communication between strangers. God forbid you say something that may offend someone because you don't know them well enough to know what they find disrespectful. I can picture a world where everyone walks down the streets with their heads down, not daring to take a glance at anyone else.

          This whole thing is people feeling helpless and, in turn, doing something to make others feel helpless. Think about it; if they post a picture or video of someone on the Internet, that can't be taken back. The subject of that content is helpless to get rid of it. They've been forever branded by it. Doesn't it seem kind of hypocritical? If I whistled at a woman and winked at her then found my picture on the Internet implying that I harass women, I would be fucking fuming. Is there oversight on the content that is uploaded? Does anyone check it to verify that there is actual harassment occurring? If so, what are the standards they judge the content by?

          It's just downright absurd. On the plus side, I learned that I can post pictures of people and tell stories about them on the Internet and it's constitutionally protected. Perhaps I'll start doing that. But I'll at least have the decency to do it because I don't like the people or what they do. I certainly won't do the very thing I accuse them of doing  like these lovely ladies do.

Like it or not,

-The Absurdist